A Raptor in My Tree

Found this gorgeous hawk sitting in my eucalyptus tree this afternoon:


On the sewing front, I am almost done with one of the side borders for the Heart's Garden quilt.

Made the cruise ship for the Happy Village..its pinned but not quilted..and I added legs/feet to the Garden Bird..but haven't worked on its applique..both of these may be going to Retreat as projects to work on there.

A Flash of Inspiration...

I was sewing on that Viking yesterday at my class..using a Mettler spool which is long and narrow...and was mounted on a horizontal spool pin..

This morning I  was looking at my Singer 9020 which has a horizontal spool pin, only the end cap has gotten looser and looser over the years (don't remember it ever working really well)..when I had a flash of inspiration on how to fix it..

See that center ring with a rubber band shoved into the grove?...it works!! And it was cheap...the rubber band came off of a Fat Quarter roll...

Almost done with quilting the Happy Village..except for the upper right corner where I am adding a cruise ship in the ocean..the cruise ship is just a prototype at this point..I will probably change the color to white and FMQ the portholes...and the black bands on the smokestacks...The rest of the quilting is done though..and I have to figure out how to finish it..I really like the buttery gold background color..may make a flange of that and mount the whole thing on a piece of black felt (the quilting on the back looks odd..its done in three different colors of bobbin and the FMQ on the bougainvilleas and the palm fronds looks odd on the back..) as suggested by the teacher..

 

May have to wait til the next day I am working from home to finish it though.. 

It does make me happy to look at it!

Road to CA - Day 3

Today was Happy Village day....oh my...the villages that were constructed...

We snipped our fabric into little squares and stepped pieces and stuck all the little pieces onto the batting and glued the shapes down with dots of Roxanne's GlueBasteIt and then had a blast adding doors and windows and roofs and steps and trees...After those were stuck on firmly, we auditioned pieces of tulle..I ended up liking a golden tulle best..though the white shimmer stuff looked pretty dang good as well..

I got most of my village buildings quilted..at least there are no pins left..but a couple of areas need to be outlined. Oh..and I need to outline all of the doors and windows and steps and add some thread painting to the trees..There were only a few that got as far as using the machines. DH says he thinks the sky needs a bird or the ocean needs a sailboat..have to think on that!

I liked the Viking machine that I used..it has needle down..and the presser foot lifts just slightly when you stop stitching, allowing you to pivot without actually lifting the foot..the auto thread cutter is pretty neat as well..they want 2K though for the classroom machines..or 3.5K for a new one in the box..eiii..

Here is today's haul:

A yard of DecorBond interfacing, a bag of SewBatik's light batik scraps, the cutest froggie fabric....
I got the pin from the Skizzix booth..almost talked myself into getting one of the small cutters..but decided to sleep on it...got the bird journal from a crafting group for signing up for their newsletter..
I also got a cd by Bron Journey, the harpist that plays during the show..and I bought Karen Eckmeier's Happy Village book, which she autographed.

Road to CA - Day 2

Day 2 of the applique class and I have pinned all of the elements except for the eye of the bird, the branches are stitched, one leaf is stitched and the belly of the bird and half of his tail are stitched:


We learned the whipped stem stitch including making it variable weights, a brick stitch and the turkey stitch..which I need to practice.

My purchases yesterday and today at the vendor mall:

I actually got a couple more fat quarters - you can see where I used them on the bird applique as they are the branches and the multicolored leaves. I got three spools of Kimono silk thread - its half again as thin as the YLI silk that I have been using..a threader for my serger (which I need to resurrect..its been sitting for a number of years...), some shimmery tulle for tomorrow's class (I have black and green and plain white to audition..but I think I am going to like the shimmery stuff...)..and a small bottle of the colorless textile extender that seals chalk or pencil to fabric which is also one of the techniques from this class..


This is the teacher's piece in the Instructor's Show..gorgeous pheasants and chalk enhanced machine stitching..( I think if you click on the picture, it will get bigger so you can see the details)


Its been really nice weather so far..but tomorrow is supposed to rain! It will be fun getting my roller cart of stuff into the convention center..I better bring a towel! I already have the huge golf umbrella out..

Road To CA - Day 1

Road to CA 2012 has officially started!

Attended the first day of my two day applique class by Sandra Leichner...she is also one of the judges for the show this year (this is the fourth judge that I have taken classes from!) Anyway..she's an interesting teacher and I really like needle-turn applique much better than the prep'ed edges like starch.She has oodles of tips and tricks..I really like her quilts. Her quilt 'Tea with Miss D' won one of the big awards at Houston..

We are doing her pattern 'Garden Bird' - here is my project after one day - we traced the pattern onto a vinyl overlay and learned how Sandra does inside corners and the points on leaves ..my branches are mostly done..and the leaves are just laid on the background fabric for now..hopefully will get to the bird tomorrow:

(Ekk..you can see I didn't pin them down yet as the placement is all off when you compare it to the next photo....)

And hopefully mine ends up looking at least SOMEWHAT like this when I am done!

Really funny. story...we were stitching away on our branches after getting some instruction on how to do the deep inside V's or tree crotches..one of the gals at my table is a speed demon with applique and got done before the rest of us. Sandra came by and was checking her stitching...Called everyone over to see her nicely done tree crotch, embarrassing the gal...everyone gave her a round of applause..to which she said "Oh great...Y'all stand around admiring my crotch and now y'all have given me the clap'...

Getting Ready for Road

Ekk!...I found three more UFOs while packing up the supplies for Road next week:

- tiny pre-cut Winding Ways kit from John Flynn
- t-shirt with fabric panel..this is truely old..my kids were really small when I bought the panel..but I still like it! I think it may go with the fabric for the shorts..hopefully a new outfit!
- another set of fabric set aside for a quilted sweatshirt..I may put these back into stash...cuz if I make the Laurel Burch one, I probably wouldn't need another quilted sweatshirt..

I am using the village of Oia on Santorini as inspiration for my Happy Village...if you know me, you know of my fascination with the island of Santorini (or Thera) and the possibility of it being the source of the Atlantis legend. Someday I hope to actually go to Greece...

I love the stacked house architecture..and the blue domed churches.

Serendipity

The other day, I was looking for a brown knit glove that I could turn into a chipmunk (an idea from Pinterest)...I collect chipmunks and squirrels..have since I was a child..and this cutie is just too fun not to do!

I have a bag of singleton gloves that my Mom gave me..Once upon a time, a properly dressed lady would wear gloves whenever she went out and every once in a while, a glove got lost..so over time my Mom built up a small stash of these really soft doeskin gloves - they were way too expensive to just toss, even just a singleton! She gave them to me so I could make dolly shoes.. The bag has other types of gloves as well..a tricot one and some winter gloves..even a leather mitten from when I was small..

I was sitting here thinking about what I could use to substitute for the band-aid I was using to keep my middle finger from getting turned into hamburger..when serendipity struck - I could use one of those doeskin gloves!..I cut the thumb off one (my Mom's hands are tiny.....mine are not!) and so far, I am loving my new thimble..it's lightweight, it doesn't make my finger sweat..it's almost like it is not there, but it keeps the straw needles from poking holes in my middle finger!!

I normally HATE wearing a thimble..most of them are too noticeable..hot and unbending, heavy...or they let the needle still poke me - I have one leather thimble that has a piece of metal at the tip that is supposed to let you push a needle thru a stiff patch..but the straw needle eyes just get caught in the edge and worse, they go thru and poke my finger.. for hand quilting, I have a paddle thimble but its not very useful for piecing or applique.

and oh yeah..I did find a brown knit glove in the bag to make Mr Chips! He is going to go to Retreat with me.